It is NEVER too late to apologize

I had considered using this photo whilst pondering apologies. It would have made the point that sometimes it is just too late to apologize.

Only, I know it is NEVER to late to apologize! I’m thinking of our friend, Chuck and a “ghost” who waited 50 years for an “apology.” The story, Memories, is still up on my website.

The short version is that Chuck started having nightmare as the 50th anniversary of D-Day approached. Every night a white “ghost” loomed over the foot of his bed. Finally his wife got him to go to the doctor, and after ruling out physical reasons he went to see a psychologist.

It turned out the “ghost” was the “memory” of a German soldier in a white winter camouflage uniform. During the Battle of the Bulge, Chuck was in a foxhole when he heard the soldier’s boots crunching on snow. Chuck looked up and, reflexively, shot him. Chuck, in the incident, was wounded and shipped off to a hospital, forgetting all about it — consciously.

But the ghost was lodged deep in Chuck’s memories. Now that Chuck knew who the ghost was, the question was, WHAT TO DO? Working with the psychologist, Chuck decided to write the soldier a “letter of apology” saying that he was sorry they had met the way they did — and sorry that he had killed him. He took the letter to the grill at a public park and set it on fire. The smoke carried the message up and away. And the ghost never returned.

I suppose, God, that really makes the point that apologies benefit those who give them as much as those who receive them.